Temples of vroom

In a town where the car is God, there's a new cathedral. Silvery and enigmatic, the Mercedes-Benz museum sits just off the B14 highway as it dips into a gentle fold of the Neckar Valley. Designed by Dutch architects Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, the 15-story building looks like a loosely interleaved stack of postmodern pancakes, its bands of aluminum and glass rising in an undisciplined kinetic wobble above a granite pavilion. Mercedes-Benz has long had its stamp on Stuttgart's sky — a three-pointed star rotates above the Hauptbahnhof, or train station — but now, with the $50-million edifice planted on the outskirts of the city as a kind of ceremonial gateway, the company's dominion seems more ecclesiastical than corporate.

And why not? Germany's automakers are locked in a fierce competition — reminiscent of medieval city-states' cathedral wars — to see which can build the grandest temple. For travelers tired of schlepping from one Our Lady of Whatever to another, the German automakers' building spree offers a rich new itinerary — showrooms, museums and tours — that traces the technological triumphs of the Automotive Age, the passion for motor sports, the renaissance of postwar Germany and the cost-is-no-object ambitions of brand-name architects.

Read Article

AUDIMAN4 - 8/28/2006 9:46:43 PM

+1 Boost

Plano, no offense bro but do you work outside of home? Or does Autospies consume every waking moment of your life? No offense!